Whether you’re student, business owner, employee or child suffering from ADHD there is a plethora of super foods to help you focus. This article is directed to help students during midterms but these foods apply to anyone. Your brain cells feed on glucose, which is derived from complex carbohydrates (whole grain, vegetables, fruits and legumes). Complex carbs release sugar at a steady pace into your blood stream and your brain feeds on this glucose for fuel. Your brain loves this type. Simple carbohydrates (refined, white and processed foods) on the other hand, actually drain your brain of energy, as they release sugar fast into the blood stream almost like an injection, which causes your pancreas to secrete Insulin. This in turn causes cells throughout your body to pull excess glucose from your blood stream and in turn drains your brain of the glucose it requires for energy. This leads to you not being able to concentrate, think, concentrate, focus or learn, you’ll feel weak and in extreme cases, this leads to hypoglycemia – which can actually lead to unconsciousness! Steer clear of high sugar foods which obviously includes sweets as well as simple carbs, but also high sugar soft drinks – you’ll experience an immediate high, but that is swiftly followed by a low. Stick to these types of foods, written by Kathryn Miller for Student Printz:

Super Foods To Help You Focus

The following is a list of super brain foods for a positive, stress-free midterm week.

• CHOCOLATE—Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidants, which enhance focus and concentration and improve mood. Milk chocolate starts impulse control and reaction time. Chocolate has been known to improve visual and verbal memory.

I was fairly surprised to see milk chocolate recommended here in these super foods to help you focus. Dark chocolate is known to be beneficial for your health (in small doses) as the coco has antioxidants but I wasn’t aware of the benefits of milk chocolate. Every day’s a school day!

The advice to step into nature to improve your focus, creativity and happiness may not come as a surprise to many. We are all human beings after all, and I’m sure nature did not intend for us to sit in offices in front of a computer, watch TV and play video games for the majority of our lives. Sadly, this appears to be the direction that society is pushing us. I’ve touched on creativity before on other articles on this site, where ideas can come to you at the most obscure of times, such as in the shower, or when you’re on a cycle ride or hanging upside down pretending you’re Batman. I may have made that last one up, but I’m sure there’s some kind of sense to it. This is an excerpt from Lifehacker where Jonah Lehrer of the Wall Street Journal is featured.

According to Jonah Lehrer at the Wall Street Journal, a growing amount of evidence suggests hanging out in nature can increase your creativity, happiness, and focus.

Research from a forthcoming paper by researchers at the University of Kansas suggests that when you wander into untamed landscapes it calms your nerves and restores your brain power. As Lehrer points out this can help you be more creative, happier, and improve your focus. In the University of Kansas study, just three days in nature lead to a 50% increase in performances on creativity tests.

So when you’re next stuck for ideas, and your mind is going off in all sorts of directions, step into nature to improve your focus, creativity and happiness. It makes complete sense to me. It’s easy to get stuck in the 9-5 grind (or 8-6, 7-7 or worse), with an hour commute either side of your working day and just get used to the idea that that is what life is about. I believe every single person has it in them to be creative, as Sir Ken Robinson quite rightly points out. I don’t think we’ll ever find our creative sides by sitting in front of a computer. Do as nature intended and get outdoors!

Did you know that you can improve the plasticity of your brain with a few very simple exercises? (Plasticity in broad is about your brain’s ability to repair itself through the development of neurons.) Here are 3 ways to improve your brain power that you can do in the comfort of your own home.

3 Ways To Improve Your Brain Power

Reduce Stress
Research suggests that chronic stress can actually shrink parts f the brain that are responsible for memory and can speed up aging of the brain. Reducing stress by learning how to unwind can improve your memory as well as improve your mood.

Get Some Sleep
It’s no big surprise that sleep is important. Now we know that it not only is essential for health and wellness, but for memory too. Studies have shown that people who stay up all night after learning a new task are less likely to recall it in the morning as those who sleep. While you probably don’t pull all-nighters anymore, loss of sleep can keep you from forming memories.

Do Something New
Get out of your mental rut. We tend to fall into patterns, daily routines that can stifle brain development. Why grow new brain cells an increase connections if you’re not doing any new activities? Expand your mind and challenge it to encourage neural growth.

You’ll notice that reducing stress is at the top of these 3 ways to improve your brain power. Stress is a main subject on this site because it is so important to reduce stress not only for your brain, but for your general health as well. It’s also imperative that you get enough sleep in order for your brain to function correctly. In addition to the above, exercise is key in maintaining a healthy brain, and really helps you to focus as well.

If you’d like to learn how to focus on becoming smarter, then you may wish to read A.J. Jacobs’ Drop Dead Healthy where he examines the brain’s “neuroplasticity”. This is the term given to how malleable our brains are. Alternatively, this excerpt from the book is an informative and amusing read where you will learn a few simple exercises to boost your brain power.

According to the metaphor du jour, the brain is like a muscle. You can build its strength. You can keep it from withering with age. You can create new connections and carve new pathways among the brain’s 100 billion neurons.

The key is to keep the brain active and challenged: do crossword puzzles, memorize poems, learn new languages. Meditation helps thicken the cerebral cortex. And make sure to eat the right brain food — namely, the good fats from nuts, olive oil, along with omega-3 fatty acids in fish. With these strategies, you can improve the brain in all areas — memory, creativity, attention, and reasoning. Click here to view the original source of the article

Who’d have thought that being belligerent could play a part in becoming smarter? Of these six methods on how to focus on becoming smarter, I’d have to say that this method may not go down too well with your partner/friends/family or colleagues. Intriguing nonetheless!

If information overload is overwhelming you in today’s ever more competitive world, the Zox Pro Training System may just be what you’re looking for. It was created by Richard Welch, who has been dubbed the Father of Mental Photography. It is based on an entirely different area of the brain which we are not used to knowingly be using, the subliminal area, which is “outside the conscious perception”. It is reported to increase the speed at which you read dramatically, improve concentration, focus, boost your memory and reduce stress.

This is the best review I have found by far which is completely unbiased and contains no links to sales pages. Erin, of Improve-memory.com, who is a memory improvement enthusiast, explains how it has improved her concentration and focus.

Having practiced the daily exercises included in the course, I’ve thoroughly noticed:

A superb boost in memory recall and memorization

Dramatically improved concentration and focus

An increase in my peripheral vision and awareness

The ability to read 4 times faster than my normal reading speed, with 90% comprehension (4 is my estimate) Read Full Article Here

David Riklan, founder of SelfGrowth.com, the no.1 Self Improvement site on the internet, reviews the Zox Pro Training System.

I think the most important thing to remember with something so unique and essentially out of this world, is that it will work for some, and not for others. If you keep an open mind, apply the strategies, follow the steps closely, then it may be one of the best things you’ve stumbled upon. If you find that it doesn’t work for you, then there is a 60-day money back guarantee which is completely legit. So you have nothing to lose. Try the Zox Pro Training System and see if it works for you.

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